


Claustrophobia

by Duganator01



Series: RWBY Oneshots [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Character Study, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jaune (RWBY) Has Anxiety, Modeling, Plot What Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22818892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duganator01/pseuds/Duganator01
Summary: Jaune didn’t like small spaces. That was the long and the short of it. It might be more accurate to say that he didn’t like being trapped. Stuck in one spot, or in a situation, and being unable to get out or get free. Now that was one of his biggest nightmares.Modern AU, related to One To The Other. You don't need to read that fic first.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos
Series: RWBY Oneshots [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558006
Kudos: 19





	Claustrophobia

**Author's Note:**

> claus-tro-pho-bi-a (n). Extreme or irrational fear of confined spaces.

Jaune didn’t like small spaces. That was the long and the short of it.

It might be more accurate to say that he didn’t like being  _ trapped _ . Stuck in one spot, or in a situation, and being unable to get out or get free. Now that was one of biggest nightmares.

School had seen him locked into his fair share of lockers. He’d be shoved in, the door would be slammed shut, and he’d be stuck. No matter how much he’d beg them to let him out, it was more often than not up to a teacher to rescue him.

Sure Jaune was tall now, but he wasn’t much shorter back then. Those things were  _ cramped.  _ So the whole time help would be on the way, the walls of the small metal box were suffocating him.

It was far too small, and contracting somehow. The only light was from those three stupid slots for air or whatever they were for. The air in the locker was suffocating, stifling, hot, stale, and thin.

Thin, because there didn’t seem to be enough of it.

He’d struggle to get out. When he couldn’t, he’d panic. When he’d panic, his breathing would quicken. Then the whole cycle would repeat.

Crying, and begging, and breathing too quickly for his lungs to keep up. And still, he was  _ trapped _ .

So yeah, he was familiar with lockers. And dark closets. And on a couple occasions, those weird cage things in the back of the class.

Thanks for that, Cardin.

But then highschool ended, and he finally thought he wouldn’t have to deal with that anymore. He got a job, actually did surprisingly well at it, and finally met a girl who liked him back.

On one hand, Jaune was right. There were certainly no more lockers or cage things. Cardin wasn’t around anymore, and closets no longer posed as much of a problem. That was certainly true.

They were still in there in spirit though, just disguised as something else.

Those weird cage things because questions that would trap him into needing an answer. Why haven’t you settled down yet? What do you mean you dropped out of college? Are you sure you’re not gay? Are you doing anything later? She’s not really your girlfriend is she?

His heart would speed up, and everyone would be staring at him. Jaune could see the way out, could see through the links in the cage. Just answer the question. But he was just as trapped, stuck in a box. Able to see the outside, but unable to get there.

Closets became nearly any dark silent room. Jaune’s eyes couldn’t  _ see _ an exit, so clearly there wasn’t one. He couldn’t  _ hear _ the janitor coming to unlock the doors, so clearly he was trapped.

This one was more manageable. Listening to music filled the silence with noise, creating the illusion of company. Turning on his phone showed his eyes that there was an exit and he could get out. So far, he’d pretty effectively been able to deal with “closets.”

It had been hell back when he was still an intern and he’d been accidentally locked in an  _ actual  _ closet. Fun times.

Lockers became crowds, which was a real problem because there was no shortage of those. Surrounded in a horde of people, swept away in the flow of them. Trapped, away from his friends and with too much  _ noise _ .

Able to see or hear help coming through the slots in the door, but helpless to get to them. 

Everything was too loud. Too confusing with everyone shouting to each other and over each other. They were all too close, pressing in on him from all sides. Buffeting him along, preventing any of his struggles to escape from meaning anything.

By the time his friends got to him to rescue him, he’d usually already be curled into a tight ball with his hands clamped over his ears. 

Cardin became a slew of people.

His professors, his friends, his parents. That was a fun few weeks. Or months, if you asked his friends. Or  _ years _ if you asked Saphron.

But mostly Cardin became his bosses. He resented them sometimes, more than he dared say in front of them for fear of his job. It was their fault he had to deal with the questions so often, and the crowds so often. If they’d just let him stay an intern, then he wouldn’t have to deal with this nearly as much.

Stupid photographers with their stupid hats. Hate them.

Pyrrha was a life saver through all of this. She fielded the interview questions that he couldn’t handle answering, deflecting them onto herself to answer instead. When she found out about the darkness, she actually sent him nightlights for his house without seeming judgemental at all, and told him that she was always there to call if it got too bad.

She rescued him from the crowds before he got to the point of collapse, somehow always picking up on when it was becoming too much for him. Pyrrha even defended him from their bosses when they tried to get him to do things that were just definitely hard no’s.

Jaune didn’t know what he would do without her.


End file.
